The Nuggets fell to the Blazers on Friday night for a bevy of reasons, but one play that proved vital down the stretch was the jump ball forced by Toumani Camara on Nikola Jokic. The Joker and David Adelman were beside themselves that a foul wasn’t called on the play as Camara seemed to come over Jokic’s back, almost bear-hugging him while reaching for the ball.
On Sunday, after the league deemed, upon review, that it was the correct call, David Adelman spoke with the media and had this to say, “We have to teach guys to do that. If you're allowed to wrap someone from behind with two arms, as long as you touch the ball, it’s jump ball, that's a fundamental I have to teach in practice. So we will definitely do that.”
This is a great job by Adelman, sticking it to the league and letting his feelings be made perfectly clear, without saying anything specifically critical of the officials. He’s unlikely to get fined for these comments, but he’s essentially mocking the refs and the league for deeming a play with that much contact legal.
Jokic has gotten a bad whistle for years
Nuggets fans know all too well how much Jokic gets beaten and battered every game, often by smaller players, without getting the benefit of the whistle frequently enough. His size, strength, and ability to play through contact almost work as a detriment when it comes to officiating because he doesn’t look as aggrieved by common fouls as other players.
But that doesn’t mean those fouls aren’t occurring. It’s good to see the new head coach sticking up for his player and doing his best to work the media for some more favorable officiating when it comes to his star player.
Whether or not anything comes from this remains to be seen. The league is unlikely to address the situation if nothing else comes from this, but we’ve seen them step in and direct referees to tweak the way tehy are officiating games.
Perhaps this will cause them to take a closer look at Jokic’s whistle and the amount of contact he’s forced to tolerate on each possession. It’s fun to imagine what he could do with a better whistle, but I’m not getting my hopes up for any dramatic change.
The more likely outcome is that this is just the first of many crazy calls that go against Jokic, with Adelman making it clear that he will rush to defend his MVP with every chance he gets.